Silcox wins photography award in state competition

His photograph of murder suspect Brandon Brown, his eyes closed, being led out of a court proceeding by police officers, won second place in the News Photo category. A crowd of youngsters and others were looking on in the background of the photograph, which was published Sept. 28. Silcox, who has been a newspaper photographer since 1983, has been with The News-Item for two years. He was previously employed with The Citizen-Standard, The News-Item’s sister weekly in Valley View, for six years.

This represents Silcox’s sixth PNA award. Others were in sports photo and photo story categories.

The mission of the Keystone Press Awards is to “reinforce excellence by individuals in the newspaper profession,” according to PNA. Awards are presented in up to 20 categories, with the newspapers divided into eight divisions based on circulation. The News-Item is in Division V (daily newspapers under 20,000 circulation).

Awards will be presented at PNA’s annual Pennsylvania Press Conference May 18-19 in Harrisburg.